William Eschenbach

You know, we take things for granted. We always assume there will be tomorrow to tell our children how much we love them and how proud we are to be their parents. I find myself doing that all the time. Well, not so much the telling Julia how much I love her part, but putting off doing stuff with her until tomorrow. She'll want to play or something at night and I'm so busy doing all my social stuff that I tell her "just a minute". Well what if there's not another minute.

Yesterday evening, the local news broke into my television program to report that a little boy in my city was missing. He was only 2 years old and it appears his older sister opened the gate while they were in the back yard playing and he took off. The mom had stepped inside to tend to the infant baby she had. And just like that, he was gone. His back yard backed up to 200 acres of woods, and the Tyger River was only a mile back. They put out a call for volunteers, and my heart was warmed by the number of people that showed up to help the little boy. Over 500 people was the last report I heard. Unfortunately, the emergency personnel only ended up letting 28 people help. They said that having too many people would hender their search efforts. My husband was one of the people that showed up, only to be turned away. But that's not really the point. The crews searched all night long and into this morning.

The local sheriff let us all know that they found little William this morning around 11:30 in the Tyger River. The dogs followed his tracks right up to the river edge. This child, this innocent, precious boy just jumped right in. They found an area not too far away where he had stopped to play. We were all watching the live feed on the internet at work. I just sat there and sobbed. I can't even begin to imagine what this mother is going through. And the little sister that opened the gate. I hope that she doesn't have to carry that guilt around with her as long as she lives. I'm not sure how old she is, so I don't know if this is something that she'll remember the details of. I hope not.

This story breaks my heart. William is the same age as Julia, so this really hit close to home. I can see her doing that...being so carefree, and just knowing that she's untouchable, and that someone will be there to catch her. I pray that God took William's soul before he had to suffer in that water.

So needless to say, I held Julia a little tighter tonight. I didn't get frustrated when she wanted to play while I was trying to Facebook. I held her a little longer when rocking her before bed. I love that little girl with all of my heart.

God bless William and his family.